When I go ashore I usually take a net for fish or butterflies and
bottles in which to put insects, a canteen of fresh water, a helmet to
keep the heat of the sun from my head (and in the tropics this is very
important, especially to protect the back of the neck from the sun).
Also I like to have a gig or spear with which I can get some of the
kinds of fish which do not bite at bait.
My main idea is to get birds’ eggs. Gulls’ nests are mostly on the
rocks of the cliffs, doves build on the lava rock on the ground or in
little crevasses, mocking birds in low bushes or the cactus trees or
shrubs, and the big boobies and frigate birds make ugly twig nests
about two or three feet from the ground, the greater number of them
nearer the shore, although I did see some on my way up to the crater
lake that Dwight had discovered in the center of the island, and these
were in higher trees. There was one big nest right on the lava rock
under a tree. It was a green heron’s nest and the three half grown
birds walked out of the nest when I came near.
One day I speared two crawfish in a pool right near shore, but the
prongs of the gig were too short to hold them and they got free and
darted away. I lost a moray, or poisonous eel the same way.
When we swim at the beaches or in the ocean pools near the shore we
have to watch out for sharks, sting rays and morays.
One day at Tower Island, I went to climb the cliff for birds’ eggs. I
took two boxes of soft cotton for packing any eggs I might find. And as
I went along I tapped the ground to make the small birds fly up from
their nests. This way I could locate them.
I found a mocking bird’s nest, took one egg, got some frigate eggs and
a gull’s egg. Then I turned to come back and I could not remember the
way. So I made for the cliff and the sea and came along till I found a
place to climb down again over the huge boulders of loose lava rock.
The frigate nests were near the shore. Their eggs are about the size of
a hen’s egg, quite white. The Galápagos gulls’ eggs are smaller. And
the boobies’ eggs are like the frigates’ only a little smaller.
After hunting for birds’ eggs I thought I would go over to see what Lin
was doing in the big shallow pools across the beach. She was fishing
with a tiny hook and line. So I tried, too, and I caught a lovely
little blue and silvery fish about four inches long. It had small white
speckles and was a new species. There are many different kinds of fish
in these little pools, whole schools of them, varying from one to
eighteen inches long and some with very lovely colors, many having
stripes of gold and silver.
Later I speared a whole collecting bag full of crabs for Mother to use
as bait for her fishing out in the inlet. The black lava rocks are just
full of bright colored crabs crawling around ... thousands of small
black ones, speckled, and lighter color sandy ones, and great big
bright red ones. Evidently they are all chasing each other all the
time, and acting like cannibals. And then the rest of the time the
birds are swooping down and snatching one. They certainly scurry the
minute a shadow appears, and dart up and down the rocks so quickly it
is hard to catch them.
The ship’s whistle blows at eleven in the morning and at four at night
to warn us to return to the beach to be ferried out again.